Despite the Supreme Court cancelling the permit to add two reactors to the Mochovce nuclear power plant in Slovakia, the construction process continues. “We are certainly not going to stop construction works at this point”, a representative of the “Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic” (ÚJD) said. Greenpeace have sued Slovakia, because they were […]

A six-metre-high statue of István Horthy, son of Miklós Horthy, an ally to Hitler during the interwar period, was unveiled by Hungary’s Defence Minister Csaba Hende on 20 August. The sculpture is in Siófok, just outside Budapest, and is seen as a strategy by Viktor Orbán’s government to revive the Horthy era. As head of […]

Former Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer plans to advise the Serbian government on their EU integration process. He will focus on assisting them and reporting to Belgrade how the mood is in other EU member states, Gusenbauer told the Kurier. While membership negotiations with Serbia are scheduled to start next year, the Social Democrat claimed that […]

Hundreds of neo-Nazis gathered in cities all over the Czech Republic for anti-Roma marches on the last weekend of August, leading to clashes with the police and at least 75 arrests. Since April, there have been nine of these marches all over the country, according to Amnesty International (AI) and the European Roma Rights Centre […]

Beginning on 1 June, Switzerland is limiting immigration from all EU states for a period of one year. Switzerland signed up to the bloc’s rules on freedom of movement in 1999, but the agreement included a “safeguard clause” allowing a cap on work permits if annual influx exceeds a certain number. A government statement said […]

More Spanish students are learning German, according to the Goethe Institute of Madrid, an institution globally promoting German culture and language. Registrations for German classes increased by 60% in 2012, on top of a 40% increase the year before, an Institute spokesman reported. “Never before, has the German brand had such renown,” Goethe Institute staffers […]

On 17 June, Czech Prime Minister, Petr Nečas resigned after allegations of corruption and abuse of power. Before, his chief of staff, Jana Nagyová, was arrested and charged with bribing members of parliament and misusing intelligence agents to spy on people – including, according to lawyers, the prime minister’s now estranged wife. Graft and sleaze […]

Ruling party Fidesz favourite Julia Fabény was appointed director of the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, fueling criticism that Viktor Orbàn’s conservative government is biased against opponents of the country’s increasingly patriotic cultural policy. Unlike former director Barnabás Bencsik, the 59-year old Fabény has stated that it is not the task of a museum director to […]

Prompted by Poland’s listless growth and recessions in Hungary and the Czech Republic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended short-term stimulus policies for much of Central Europe in May, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe. After vigorous growth in the 2000s, Poland has stagnated in 2013 and had only 0.1% growth in the first […]

THE VIENNA REVIEW is a publication of Vienna Review Publishing GmbH, Vienna, Austria, a journal of news, culture, lifestyle and opinion covering the life and times of Vienna, Austria and the wider Central Europen region. It is published in English.